Computer Assembly - How To Assemble A PC
Second Boot With SATA Hard Drive
We now have the minimum set of core components installed to have a real, live, working computer so it will be very exciting if everything checks out ok.
Connect the monitor, mouse, keyboard, and power cord to the back of the computer (if you haven't done so already from following the previous Connect The Speaker page). As with the first boot, turn the monitor on and give it 10 seconds to warm up. And still leave the computer case off.
What we'll do is enter the BIOS when the computer boots. The MSI K8N Neo Platinum BIOS is entered by pressing the "Delete" key while the BIOS header screen is displayed. To make sure that my pressing of the key does not go undetected by the computer, I typically tap the "Delete" key at the rate of about twice a second while the BIOS header screen is displayed until the "CMOS Utility Menu" with its striking blue background is displayed. Recall that the BIOS header screen is displayed immediately after the computer emits the single beep, so you can start tapping the "Delete" key as soon as you hear the beep. Note that different motherboards may use different keys to enter the BIOS.
Flip the power switch in back of the computer to the on position (set to 1 - one). This is it! Press the power button on the front of the computer case.
The computer should boot just as it did for the first boot. Enter the CMOS Utility Menu by pressing, or in my case tapping, the "Delete" key after the single beep is emitted and the BIOS header screen appears. The "Standard CMOS Features" menu option is already highlighted on entering the CMOS Utility Menu. Press the "Enter" key.
The "Standard CMOS Features" menu is displayed. Notice that "IDE Secondary Master" shows the value for the NEC DVD RW. But there is no sign of the Wester Digital Caviar SE 250GB SATA hard drive. The values for the date and time can be set. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the different values for the date and time. Use the numeric keypad plus "+" and minus "-" keys to change the values.
Now the date and time are correct. Check that the setting for "Drive A" shows a value for the floppy drive. If it shows a value of "None" when you actually do have a floppy drive installed then don't worry, this will be covered in the next section on this page. For the SATA hard drive to be recognized, the BIOS settings for it must be set to enabled. There are two BIOS settings to set to enabled, one for the SATA interface and one for the SATA DMA (Direct Memory Access). While we're at it, we'll also disable the IDE channel that is used when the computer includes an IDE hard drive. These settings are on different sub-menus, so we'll have to navigate to them. Press the "Escape" key to return to the previous menu.
Use the down arrow key and highlight the "Integrated Peripherals" sub-menu. Hit the "Enter" key.
The "Integrated Peripherals" sub-menu consists of mostly sub-menus of its own. Press the "Enter" key at the "IDE Function Setup" sub-menu.
There are two BIOS settings to be changed on this sub-menu. The first is the top BIOS setting for IDE Channel 0, which is the IDE interface that normally contains the IDE hard drive. Since I'm using a SATA hard drive instead of an IDE hard drive (also called a PATA, or parallel ATA, hard drive), this IDE channel should be set to Disabled. If it is left Enabled then the Windows XP Setup will fail since it won't be able to find the IDE hard drive on the enabled interface.
The second is closer to the bottom of the sub-menu to set the SATA DMA access to Enabled. Press the "Escape" key to return to the previous sub-menu.
Go down to the "Onboard Device" sub-menu and press the "Enter" key.
Which brings up the "Onboard Device" sub-menu.
Go down to the "SATA1/SATA2" BIOS setting and set it to Enabled. That's all the changes that are needed for the SATA hard drive to be recognized in the BIOS. Press the "F10" key to save the changes.
At the red confirmation window, press the "Enter" key to indicate "Y" for yes to save the changes.
The computer re-boots. After the single beep and the BIOS header screen appears, press the "Delete" key to re-enter the BIOS at the "CMOS Setup Utility" menu. Press the "Enter" key on the top sub-menu, "Standard CMOS Features".
Now the SATA hard drive is recognized in the BIOS as shown on the entry highlighted in red. Now that the SATA 1/2 interface has been Enabled, there are BIOS entries for "IDE Third Master" and "IDE Fourth Master". Use the arrow keys to go down to the SATA hard drive (IDE Third Master), and then hit the "Enter" key.
The "IDE Third Master" menu should show the characteristics of the Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB SATA hard drive. If they don't look right then press the "Enter" key to invoke the "IDE HDD Auto-Detection". Or press the "Enter" key even if they do look right just to be sure.
Pressing the "Escape" key once gets back to the "Standard CMOS Features" menu. Press the "Escape" key again to return to the main menu, the "CMOS Utility Menu".
Recognize The Floppy Drive
If the "Standard CMOS Features" menu included a value for "Drive A", indicating that the floppy drive was recognized then you're ok and you can skip this section. But if it showed a value of "None" indicating that the floppy drive was not recognized then here's what you do. The pictures in this section are taken from a time when this happened to me with a slightly different set of drives installed.
Use the arrow keys to cursor down and highlight the value for "Drive A".
Hit the Enter key and you are presented with a selection menu for the type of floppy drive.
Use the Down Arrow key to select the value "1.44M, 3.5 in.".
Hit the "Enter" key and - Voila! - it's recognized.
Common Problems
As I mentioned under first boot common problems, if something goes wrong with any installation of hardware then first you should double-check your install and verify that you did what you meant to do. In this case that means checking that you set the jumpers the right way, plugged the ribbon cables in the right way around, and even actually remembered to connect the power cables and ribbon cables in the first place. Verify that the First Boot setup, meaning without any of the drive devices connected, still works.
If the computer is getting power, meaning that the fans are spinning, but it's not getting to the BIOS header screen then the most likely cause is the ribbon cables. Either they are not connected the right way around or they are improper. Try a Second Boot again, but having only one drive device connected at a time. In each case you should reach the BIOS header screen. If you don't with a device connected then you know it's the one introducing the problem. The most likely cause is the ribbon cable is bad, although it's possible that the device or even the motherboard is faulty. Verify the ribbon cable is the right type for the device. IDE ribbon cables should be 18 inches in length, not 19 inches or 24 inches or any other inches. And they should be of high quality. If it's the ribbon cable that came in the retail box of a quality motherboard then it should be ok. Or if it's a Belkin ribbon cable then it should be ok. If it's from Radio Shack then you might want to try a different ribbon cable.
If the First Boot setup works, but now with the Second Boot configuration the LED for a drive becomes lit and stays lit then this is for sure a bad or improperly installed ribbon cable. This happens particularly frequently with the floppy drive since the ends are not color-coded and it's easy to plug the connector for the floppy drive into the motherboard and vice versa.
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© 2001-2008, Rob Williams, all rights reserved.
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